1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning device for a double-sided disk player, and more particularly, to an optical pickup lens cleaning device for a double-sided disk player, which can automatically clean a lens mounted on an optical pickup assembly for recording signals or reproducing signals from opposite sides of a disk.
2. Background
Conventional double-sided disk players include an optical pickup assembly which is moveable along the radial direction of the disk and in a vertical to access the upper and lower sides of the disk. In this manner the optical pickup assembly can record signals on or reproduce signals from opposite sides of the disk.
Such a disk player is disclosed in, for example, Japanese utility model laid-open publication No. 63-49667. More specifically, this disk player includes a guide member having first and second linear guide rail portions and a U-shaped guide rail portion interconnected with the first and second guide rail portions, a rack gear continuously formed on an internal surface of the guide member, and a connecting gear engaged with the rack gear and driven by a motor mounted on the optical pickup assembly. Thus, the optical pickup assembly is movable from an upper side of the disk to the lower side of the disk along the guide member to record signals on or reproduce signals from the upper and lower sides of the disk.
In such a conventional double-sided disk player, an important concern is that foreign substances such as dust particles are likely to be disposed on the lens of the pickup assembly, thereby adversely effecting the efficiency of the lens undesirably.
For this reason, the conventional pickup assembly requires a device for cleaning the lens of the pickup assembly periodically to remove the foreign substances. Alternatively, it is necessary to employ a disk having a lens cleaner separately designed from the pickup assembly for cleaning the lens. Accordingly, with the conventional disk player, lens cleaning is a very complicated matter and elaborate components are likely to be damaged when cleaning the lens.